1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to molds, and particularly, to a mold for forming an optical fiber connector.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical fiber connectors typically include a lens and a blind hole behind the lens. The blind hole receives an optical fiber. The lens receives and guides light from the optical fiber. The alignment accuracy between the blind hole and the lens is very important to the optical transmission ability of the optical fiber connectors.
Injection molding is a current molding method for molding optical fiber connectors. The mold used in injection molding includes a core pin used to mold the blind hole and a lens forming portion corresponding with the core pin. During the injection molding process, the core pin must keep alignment with the lens forming portion to make sure the alignment accuracy between the blind hole and the lens of the molded optical fiber connector.
However, the longitudinal axis of the blind hole usually deviates from an optical axis of the lens in the optical fiber connector mold by the above-mentioned method. The main reason is that the impact of the molding material during the molding process causes the core pin to bend, thus causing the longitudinal axis of the core pin inclination relative to the central axis of the lens forming portion (the central axis of the lens forming portion coincides with the optical axis of the molded lens).
Therefore, a mold for molding optical fiber connectors, which can overcome the above-mentioned problems, is needed.